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| Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei - the Hitler of our time |
Now, I am no war monger. I was completely against the war in Vietnam. As was my Rebbe, Rav Ahron Solobveichik who spoke out strongly against it in the HTC Beis HaMedrash well before being anti war became fashionable.
But Israel is not Viet Nam. The situation is wholly different. Israel is the Jewish homeland. And its over 8 million residents have no where else to go. If God forbid Israel were to be defeated by its enemies, there would be a genocide whose numbers could exceed the 6 million of the of the Holocaust.
Israel has no choice. They are literally fighting for their lives. 8 million of them! So it doesn’t really matter with the rest of the world thinks.
The problem is that Hamas is not the only enemy that desires our demise. They may even be the weakest among them. The real enemy is the Islamic state of Iran. They epitomize the essence of evil. Their genocidal Supreme leader is the Hitler of our day. He would be quite happy seeing 8 million dead Jews in the cause of replacing Israel with the Islamic state of Palestine. They do not make any secret of that – constantly reminding the world that they will someday wipe Israel off the map,
Toward that goal Iran has been supplying Hamas with weapons and encouragement for the kind of successful barbarism they have perpetrated against us. Same thing Hezbollah whiose greater and more powerful standing military poses an even greater danger to Israel than does Hamas. Same thing Houthi rebels of Yemen that firing missles at American warships patrolling the Red Sea. Iran has also successfully taken over huge sections of Iraq and has stationed outposts in Syria which has also been firing missiles at US ships..
So in essence Israel is fighting Iran as much as they are fighting Hamas Their goal is the same. As is the goal of Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. Which is to wipe Israel off the map.
In 1967 Egypt’s charismatic president, Gamal Abdul Nasser closed the gulf of Aqaba, Israel’s lifeline to the rest of the world. That was widely seen as the first step in war by Arab nations to ‘push the Jews into the sea’ - and reclaim Palestine.
Jews worldwide feared that Israel was in mortal danger by the prospect of a war by well armed Arab armies that outnumbered Israel’s army by orders of magnitude.
But as we now know, the Arabs not only failed spectacularly, Israel won that war in 6 days – restoring all the biblical land of Israel (and then some) into Jewish hands.
They did so with a unique strategy of bombing the airfields of all the Arab nations threatening war with Israel. Thus taking away their abilty to fly missions over Israel. Israel controlled the skies and won the war
Those were heady days, The world loved us. Time Magazine had a picture on their cover of an Orthodox Jew looking like Superman. What has happened to Israel’s image since then is quite sad but beyond the scope of this post.
The point here is that if Israel had the ingenuity to do something as bold and successful as they did then, there is no reason they can’t do something like that again. Only bombing airfields is no longer enough. Nor is defeating Hamas enough. Not can Israel successfully bomb their tunnels. Which gives Hamas an enormous advantage that the Arabs did not have in 67.
But that should not deter Israel from trying to come up with a plan that will work. If your life is at stake, you do what’s necessary to save it.
The way things stand now, Israel cannot do it alone. Israel cannot fight a war with Iran without sustaining massive casualties. Nor is it all that certain they could win even if they were willing to sacrifice that many casualties.
Which brings me to the US. Iran is not only Israel’s enemy. They are the enemy of the free world. The US chief among them.
It is therefore in best interest of the civilized world that the Islamic Republic of Iran be eliminated. Which in my view can only be done by the US declaring that Iran committed an act of war against the US in the constant shelling of its war ships. At first by Iran’s proxy the Houthi rebels in Yemen. And most recently by Iran itself! Tiny targeted retaliations alone are not enough. It hasn’t stopped them yet. And it will not stop them from continuing to do it.
When a nation commits an at of war against a sovereign nation, it is the duty of that nation to declare war against that nation with the goalof defeating them. Much as the US did to Japan in world War II after they were attacked by them at Peal Harbor..
The US sustained a lot of casualties in World War II. But it was worth it. Sorry to say that the US would sustain a lot of casualties this time too. But so too will too will it be worth it now. There absolutely no doubt, however, that the US would that war. The US by far is still the most powerful nation on earth.
But a another problem lies in whether there would be any popular support for such a war. Will it play in Peoria? My guess is that most Americans would oppose it. They do not want to see anywhere near the number of casualties that would result from a war like that. But I don’t think the average American understands the threat an extremist Islamic nation like Iran poses to the free world.
That being said, I will be the first to admit that if I had a son or daughter in the military, I would be vehemently opposed to a war with any country. Much less a county that is 7000 miles away.
But that does not mean it isn’t the right thing to do. Israel could be a valuable ally to the US in that effort. An effort that – if successful - will destroy not only Iran but Hezbollah and any other terrorist proxy of Iran.
And then maybe the people of Iran will once again enjoy the freedom they experienced under the Shah. Who fast paced western culture into that country. A culture that many if not most Iranians would love to see re-established there. As several protests have indicated. Protests the current Iranian government put down in a hurry with brutal force.
Of course none of this will happen for a variety of reasons. Not in a million years! But in my view, it should. If there was ever a righteous war, this would be it.